If you’re reading this blog, I assume you’re a descendant of Penelope and Richard Stout and are familiar with her story and want to know more. I would love to discover the truth behind Penelope’s story but facts are scarce. I'll have to settle for conjectures.

Together, we can combine our incomplete knowledge and arrive at better conclusions. So please comment.

........ Conjecture, noun, the formation of judgments or opinions on the basis of incomplete or inconclusive information. Source: Encarta Dictionary

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Documentation for Penelope Prince of Kent Island, Maryland colony

This week I just provide more documentation
for Penelope Prince of Kent Island, Maryland colony. Still not sure what ot make of all this.

Item 1Archives
of Maryland, LIV (vol 54), Proceedings of the County Courts of Kent
(1648-1676), Talbot (1662-1674) and Somerset (1656-1668). Baltimore: Maryland
Historical Society, 1937.Robert
Vaughan, adiminstrator of the estate of William Coxe in 1648 and of his wife
Francis Coxe in 1656 prepared an inventory for the orphan Elizabeth Coxe

P
99A
True Acct of The Estate That belongeth to Elizabeth Cox The Daughter of Will
Cox Deseased & francis Being now in The hands of Capt Robt Vaughan Taken
The 24th of August 1656Itt
one Planttation with housing Vpon it: And one Thousand Acresof
land Belonging Vnto it With A PattentItt
an Indenture for 5 yeares serves Dew from Penellope
PrinceThat
Rann Away from Mistiris Cox Anno: Dom 1646:etc

Item 2

The
Maryland Calendar of Wills: Wills from 1635 (earliest probated) to 1685

Page 21

Mees (or Mee),
Georgeprobated 6th Aug 1662

To Joisas
(Josiah?) Smith, house and ground

To John Vanheck,
land on side of Deep Cr.

To wife
(unnamed), residue of estate, real and personal during widowhood; if she marry,
entire estate to John Vanheck, except dower rights. Caesar Prince to live with testator’s wife until he is 18 yrs. of age.

Exs: wife
(unnamed) and John Vanheck

Test: Geo.
Wilson and Thos. Ward.

Jim’s Note 1:
Catherine was widow of Oliver van Heck of Virginia and mother of John van Heck,
thus disposition of assets to widow’s son was typical

Jim’s Note 2: On
page 16, Caesar Prince is “overseer”
of will of William Martine, probated 4 Jul 1660. I think an overseer was a work
foreman, implying that Caesar was probably a teenage in 1660 and thus near 18
in 1662.

Jim’s Note 3: Thus
Caesar Prince was born likely between 1644 and 1646.